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Category: A Blog… of sorts
Independent musicianship v. weekend warmongering
I took to the epithet “Independent Musician” with gusto. I like the rank of “Weekend Warrior” less. Still, if the cap fits… Each term can have a slight air of the derogatory about it, depending on context, and both are used with a perceptible virtual sneer by some professionals – particularly in online engineering and…
A Task Facing Me
The bulk of the songs for Uneasy Listening is sitting on the hard-drive of my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation or Discount Analogue Workaround, depending on age and prejudice) awaiting editing. What does this comprise? Well, as far as the guitar parts are concerned, it involves editing out the occasional (I insist) fluffs from the selected…
Those two weeks away from the guitar…
…when I was in Italy have not done my chops any good. Indeed, picking up my (new) guitar again after returning made me wonder at how easily and quickly technique can fall off. I recall reading somewhere that Segovia opined that technique never stands still; it either improves or deteriorates. I dunno, I normally do…
A Pickup On My OM-18V…
…was installed at the same time as the aforementioned nut job, above. So far, and after only a quick audition in the store, it is all I expected it to be: like an acoustic guitar with a pick-up on it. Let me be clear: the sound of an acoustic guitar with a pick-up, of whatever…
Why did I “un-retire”?
There is something about a person’s potential for doing the one thing for which they are specially suited, that once that potential is realised then it becomes irrevocably part of who they are. It defines their essence. Only by expressing themselves in this way, are they authentically who they are. Is this in the genes?…
“Celtic” Music (yeah, right!)
As if there is such a thing. Good grief. There is Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Breton – and whatever else – music. Why do we need to use a term that is misapplied so often anyway to categorise these lands’ music. It does little else but obscure the origin and uniqueness of the different forms. Let…
My new Martin OM-28V
Well, I bought a new guitar. No big surprise there, you might think, but I’m not a serial guitar purchaser. I like to live with my guitar and get to work with its moods and foibles. There’s also the comfortable-old-shoes syndrome – I like not to be conscious that there’s a guitar on my lap,…
Loudon Wainwright III
Of whom I am a big fan. Since I heard one of his records in the early ’70s. His Motel Blues was one of the rare covers I have ever done. So rare were my covers that most people assumed it was one of mine – I had to disabuse them of that notion on…
OM-18V Nut job!
Yes, well. My OM-18V is a wonderful thing. However one thing that has irritated me is the nut slots being cut so that the top and bottom strings are so damn’ near the edge of the fingerboard causing pull-offs on the top ‘e’ string not to ring true. It also causes the fleshy part of…
It was 50 years ago today…
…that Jean Sibelius died. I’ve acknowledged my appreciation before herabouts of this composer. There was speculation on the radio last night about why he composed virtually nothing during the last thirty years of his life. Well, actually he did compose but he through the score of an incomplete symphony in the fire. A few present…
